A PUB frequented by corn circle enthusiasts, including actors Goldie Hawn and her husband Kurt Russell, is at the centre of a canal feud.

The latest move in the war of words across the Kennet and Avon Canal at Honeystreet has been the creation of a corrugated tin fence.

Regulars in the Barge Inn immediately dubbed the straggling row of tin sheets on the opposite side of the canal, Tinhenge.

The fence is the latest move in an alleged war of words involving the popular canalside pub run by Adrian and June Potts.

The iron sheets have been put up by Pewsey storekeeper Malcolm Pope along the boundary of his garden at Honeystreet.

But instead of being dismayed, Mrs Potts said they were now treating Tinhenge as a tourist attraction.

She said: "If anyone asks us about Tinhenge we point out that like many of the other prehistoric monuments in Wiltshire it is aligned with the sun at the summer and winter equinoxes although we think that may be by accident.

"We tell customers that at sunset the tin casts dramatic shadows across the breeze-rippled surface of the canal."

Mr Pope, who lives on the north bank of the Kennet and Avon Canal opposite the Barge, a popular meeting place for crop circle enthusiasts and boaters, is unimpressed.

He said the tin sheets are a temporary windbreak to shelter new fir tree saplings, planted to replace trees mysteriously felled a few weeks ago.

The pub is very popular with tourists, ramblers and with boaters on the canal, which runs just yards from the 190-year-old building.

It also attracts celebrities like Goldie Hawn and Ken Russell, who are drawn by the crop circle phenomenon, and writers such as Janet Street-Porter.

Mr and Mrs Potts claim that Mr Pope, who runs a military surplus and clothing store in Pewsey, has shown a strong dislike for the boaters who moor along the canal bank opposite his home.

Mr Pope, however, told the Gazette that he had always adopted a live and let live attitude and had no problem with the boaters and other people enjoying the canal.

Until a few weeks ago a belt of fir trees protected the privacy of the bottom of his garden immediately opposite the pub.

Mr Pope said several trees, originally planted by British Waterways to give the garden some privacy from the pub, were 15ft high, but most were six or seven feet.

But overnight the trees were mysteriously felled. No-one heard the sound of the trees being taken down.

Mr Pope believes a hand saw could have been used.

He said: "We can only surmise that the only people who would gain from it would be the Barge.

"It had been said before that the trees blocked the view."

Mr Pope said it would have easy for anyone to get across the canal in a small boat, or from the deck of a narrow boat, and saw down the trees under cover of darkness.

He is now planting some new fir saplings and said he has put up the sheets of tin to protect them.

"It's just there as a windbreak while we plant the new trees," he said. "It's only a temporary thing."

He said he and his wife, Hazel, had been upset at the thought of someone going tothe bother of cutting the trees.

But over at the Barge, Mr and Mrs Potts are convinced Mr Pope has put up the shabby tin fence to cock a snook at them.

June Potts said: "He has made it clear he does not like the boaters and I think this is his way of waving two fingers at us and them."

The pub landlady said she was mystified as to who felled the trees.

She said: "We have no idea at all who did it. We were away at the time but we got the blame for it."

But, she said, they were not particularly upset at the appearance of the tin sheeting. She believes Tinhenge will now become an attraction in its own right.